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<title>Issue Life Cycle</title>

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 <span class="Header" nowrap>An Issue's Life Cycle</span>
<p>  
 <span class="PlainText"><strong>Additional resources about issues: Index</strong>
<ul>
	<dl>
	<dt><a href="ProjectIssues.html">Project Issues help</a>
		<dd><strong>You are here: <a href="#lifecycle_table">The issue life cycle</a>
			 <ul>
		       <li><a href="#issuesequence">More about the sequence of an issue's status</a>
		       <li><a href="#verifyissues">Verifying issues</a>
		      </ul></strong>
		<dd><a href="issuewritinghelp.html">Issue writing guidelines</a>
		<dd><a href="issuezilla_tipsandtricks.html"> IssueZilla tips and tricks</a> 
		<dd><a href="contributing_patches.html">Contributing patches</a>
	<dt><a href="/servlets/HelpTOC">Back to main Help index</a>
	</dl>
</ul>

 
     
 
<a name="lifecycle_table"></a><table border="1" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0" width="100%">
   <tr>
    <td valign="top"><h3>STATUS</h3></td> 
    <td valign="top"><h3>RESOLUTION</h3></td>
  </tr>
  <tr valign=top>
    <td class="PlainText">The <b>status</b> field indicates the general health of an issue. Only certain status transitions are allowed.</td>
    <td class="PlainText" valign="top">The <b>resolution</b> field indicates what happened to this issue.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr valign=top>
    <td class="PlainText">
      <dl>
        <dt><b><a href="issues_unconfirmedhelp.html">UNCONFIRMED</a></b> 
        <dd> This issue has recently been added to the database.  Nobody has
     validated that this issue is true.  Users who have the "canconfirm"
     permission set may confirm this issue, changing its state to <b>NEW</b>.
     Or, it may be directly resolved and marked <b>RESOLVED</b>.
        <dt><b>NEW</b> 
        <dd> This issue has recently been added to the assignee's list of issues
     and must be processed. Issues in this state may be accepted, and
     become <b>STARTED</b>, passed on to someone else, and remain
     <b>NEW</b>, or resolved and marked <b>RESOLVED</b>.
        <dt><b>STARTED</b> 
        <dd> This issue is not yet resolved, but is assigned to the proper
     person. From here issues can be given to another person and become
     <b>NEW</b>, or resolved and become <b>RESOLVED</b>.
        <dt><b>REOPENED</b>
        <dd>This issue was once resolved, but the resolution was deemed
     incorrect.  For example, a <b>WORKSFORME</b> issue is
     <b>REOPENED</b> when more information shows up and the issue is now
     reproducible.  From here issues are either marked <b>STARTED</b>
     or <b>RESOLVED</b>.
      </dl>
    </td>
    <td class="PlainText">
      <dl>
        <dd> No resolution yet. All issues which are in one of these "open" states have the resolution set to blank. All other issues will be marked with one of the resolutions below.
      </dl>
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr valign=top>
    <td class="PlainText">
      <dl>
        <dt><b>RESOLVED</b> 
        <dd> A resolution has been taken, and it is awaiting verification by
     QA. From here issues are either re-opened and become
     <b>REOPENED</b>, are marked <b>VERIFIED</b>, or are closed for good
     and marked <b>CLOSED</b>.
        <dt><b>VERIFIED</b>
        <dd> QA has looked at the issue and the resolution and agrees that the
     appropriate resolution has been taken.  Issues remain in this state
     until the product they were reported against is actually released, at
     which point they become <b>CLOSED</b>.
        <dt><b>CLOSED</b> 
        <dd> The issue is considered dead, the resolution is correct. Any zombie
     issues who choose to walk the earth again must do so by becoming
     <b>REOPENED</b>.
      </dl>
    </td>
    <td class="PlainText">  
      <dl>
        <dt><b>FIXED</b>
        <dd> A fix for this issue is checked into the source code repository and tested.
        <dt><b>INVALID</b>
        <dd> The problem described is not an issue 
        <dt><b>WONTFIX</b>
        <dd> The problem described is an issue which will never be fixed.
        <dt><b>LATER</b>
        <dd> The problem described is an issue which will not be fixed in this
     version of the product.
        <dt><b>REMIND</b>
        <dd> The problem described is an issue which will probably not be fixed in this
     version of the product, but might still be.
        <dt><b>DUPLICATE</b>
        <dd> The problem is a duplicate of an existing issue. Marking an issue
     duplicate requires the issue number of the duplicating issue and will at
     least put that issue number in the description field.
        <dt><b>WORKSFORME</b>
        <dd> All attempts at reproducing this issue were futile, reading the
     code produces no clues as to why this behavior would occur. If
     more information appears later, please re-assign the issue, for
     now, file it.
      </dl>
      <p>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

<table border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td class="PlainText" valign="top">
      <p><span class="InputHeader"><a name="issuesequence">More about the sequence of an issue's status</a></span>

      <p>What happens to an issue when it is first reported depends on
      who reported it. By default, issues reported (that is, entered)
      into IssueZilla are assigned a status of <span
      class="TypewriterBold">UNCONFIRMED</span>. This means that a QA
      (Quality Assurance) person -- or whoever has the appropriate
      permissions on your project -- needs to confirm that this issue
      is legitimate before changing its status to <span
      class="TypewriterBold">NEW</span>. By sending mail to <!-- is
      this the right alias?
      -->issues-subscribe@&lt;projectname&gt;.domain.com, you can be
      notified of all changes to an issue. You then use issue tracking
      to view and further &quot;workflow&quot; the issue.

      <p>If you are a project member who is a developer/user/tester,
      you can create <span class="TypewriterBold">NEW</span> issues
      and assign them to other developers. When an issue's status
      becomes <span class="TypewriterBold">NEW</span>, the developer
      assigned the issue either accepts it or reassigns it to someone
      else. If the issue remains new and inactive for more than a
      week, IssueZilla nags the issue's owner with email until action
      is taken. Whenever a issue is reassigned or has its component
      changed, its status is set back to <span
      class="TypewriterBold">NEW</span>. The <span
      class="TypewriterBold">NEW</span> status means that the issue is
      newly added to a particular developer's plate, not that the
      issue is newly reported. Think of <span
      class="TypewriterBold">NEW</span> as an important e-mail you
      need to answer, except you respond through IssueZilla, and you
      can use this tool to track the issue's progress more efficiently
      than e-mail.

      <p>Some project members with additional permissions have the
      ability to change all the fields of a issue. (Default
      permissions only allow limited fields to be changed. (<a
      href="/docs/ProjectIssues.html#permissions">Read
      more about IssueZilla permissions</a>). Whenever you change a
      field in a issue it's a good idea to add additional comments to
      explain what you are doing and why. Make a note in the comments
      field whenever you:
      <ul>
        <li>change the component
        <li>reassign the issue
        <li>create an attachment
        <li>add a dependency, or
        <li>add someone to the CC list.
      </ul>

      <p>Whenever someone else makes a change to an issue or adds a
      comment, they are added to the CC list and the owner, reporter,
      and CC list receive an email announcing changes to the
      issue. This email reports the change using a "diff" format,
      marking which lines have changed and including any new comments.
      <dl>

      <p>
<span class="InputHeader"><a name="verifyissues"></a>Verifying issues</span>

      <p>When issues are marked resolved, project/component owners
      look at these to make sure the appropriate action has been
      taken. If they agree, the issue is marked <span
      class="TypewriterBold">VERIFIED</span>. Issues remain in this
      state until the product or version is released, then the issue
      is marked <span class="TypewriterBold">CLOSED</span>. Issues may
      come back to life by becoming 
      <span class="TypewriterBold">REOPENED</span>.  <p>Be careful about
      changing the status of someone else's issues. Instead of making
      the change yourself, it's usually best to make a note of your
      proposed change as a comment <i>first</i> and to let the issue's
      owner review this and make the change themselves. For example,
      if you think one issue is a duplicate of another, make a note of
      it in the "Additional Comments" section of the issue.

      <p>If you make a lot of useful comments to others' issues, you
      gain their trust in your judgement and you may be given
      permissions to go ahead and make the changes yourself. Unless
      and until this happens, exercise discretion by using the
      "Additional Comments" section.

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

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